I have my Dad’s PT Cruiser 2 door convertible Turbo. Love the little car but want to soften the ride. I know it won’t ‘handle’ as well, but I drive around town in the southeast with lots of potholes and such. I don’t know anything about cars, so need basic info. I want to know a bit before I go to my mechanic. Also thinking about getting taller tires.
Which model do you have? With the turbo model you'll have either the Touring or GT. I am guessing you have the GT model, it has the 17" alloy wheels which limits the choices if you are looking to soften the ride. The problem with trying to go with the smaller 15" rims and taller tires is that you'd likely have to change out the entire front braking system, and maybe the rear. I don't believe the 15" rims can clear the brake calipers. You can handle a LOT of that with just the tires themselves. A softer sidewall will help out with the ride quite a bit. But you'll sacrifice a huge amount of performance, that includes slower in curves, worse braking, etc. That's the trade off. The GT has a stiffer suspension with larger sway bars, steering knuckles, along with the larger brakes, etc. The car will be more dangerous to drive with softer tires, and taller tires likely won't fit that well either due to the car being the performance version, with little room for it.
If you have 15" rims with hubcaps, it is likely you have a Touring version, in which case you won't likely be able to improve the ride much. The base suspension and ride are built specifically for touring rather than performance, and as such are tuned for comfort. The engine in the touring is the same as the GT, but it runs with a detuned ECU, at 180 hp, versus the 220 Hight Output (HO) in the GT.
